The Government of Germany has made a new voluntary contribution of €350 000 to the European Youth Foundation to support quality youth-led projects to strengthen youth work and young people’s access to rights, participation in democracy and inclusion, and a contribution of €150 000 to support the European Youth Centre, the training centre and knowledge base for youth work and youth policy in the Council of Europe.

On this occasion, Ambassador Jutta Frasch, Permanent Representative of Germany to the Council of Europe visited the European Youth Centre and met with Antje Rothemund, Head of the Youth Department, and Marco Leidekker, Head of the European Youth Foundation.

Bringing Europe closer to the people by involving the public and young people in a future-oriented debate was one of the priorities of the German Presidency of the Committee of Ministers from November 2020 to May 2021. The Youth Department is grateful for Germany’s continued support to youth work as well as the protection of youth rights.

An end-of-term visit of the Council of Europe Quality Label for Youth Centres took place in Marienthal Youth Centre, Luxembourg on 1-2 December 2021. The aim of the visit was to evaluate the youth centre’s implementation of the 15 quality criteria of the Quality Label which Marienthal youth centre holds since 2018.

During the visit, changes within the National Youth Service in Luxembourg (SNJ), under which Marienthal youth centre operates, were presented. An updated pedagogical concept for the Luxemburgish youth centres operating under SNJ was also introduced to the Quality Label Expert Team. Furthermore, recent initiatives and progress achieved in relation to the recommendations made by the Expert Team during their initial visit in 2017 was introduced by the centre’s staff.

As a result of the visit, the Quality Label Expert Team will make its recommendation to the to the European Steering Committee for Youth (CDEJ) to prolong the Quality Label for Marienthal Youth Centre. The final decision will be taken at the next CDEJ meeting on 21 March 2022.

The seminar "Youth policy: from standards to practice" on the Council of Europe standards on youth policy and youth work and their application in national policies and programmes gathered in Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation forty-five participants from twenty-three countries, representing governmental organisations, research institutions and youth NGO's, as well as researchers.

The 4-day programme covered the standards, priorities and approaches in the Council of Europe, as well as the Youth Sector Strategy 2030 and cross-sectoral cooperation. The future campaign on revitalising democracy was also introduced to the participants.

The seminar was co-organised by the Council of Europe Youth Department, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation and the National Youth Council of Russia within the Framework Programme on Co-operation between the Council of Europe and the Russian Federation in the field of youth policy.

The Programming Committee on Youth (CPJ) met online on 9-10 December 2021, and adopted the 2022 co-managed programme and budget of the European Youth Centres (EYCs) and the budget of the European Youth Foundation (EYF).

Decisions were taken on study sessions to be implemented in the European Youth Centres in 2022, as well as on grant applications for pilot activities, international activities and work plans of youth organisations submitted to the EYF.

In 2021, the Committee awarded EYF grants to 24 new projects for 2022, two-year structural grants to 33 international youth organisations and networks, and a grant to the European Youth Forum for a total amount of 2.1 million euros. The Committee also discussed the new Youth campaign for revitalising democracy, and held an evaluation of their two-year mandate. In 2020-21, the CPJ considered more than 655 youth project applications; it awarded 341 projects for a total amount of 4.7 million euros for the benefit of national and international youth organisations and networks, and young people across Europe.

The study session was organised from 6 to 10 December in co-operation with Tutmonda Esperantista Junulara Organizo-TEJO at the European Youth Centre Budapest; it brought together 26 young active citizens from 17 countries to get educated on the topic of sexism and verbal communication by exploring their interconnection, and to bring their newly acquired knowledge back home to their local contexts.

The session started by exploring the concepts of gender, sex and related topics. It then moved on to understanding what gender-based violence is, using the Youth Department manual Gender Matters. The participants were introduced to ways in which language and pictures produce sexist stereotypes, and the tools that exist to counter this.

The study session also explored sexism as a human right violation by looking at the European Court of Human Rights case-law on the subject. Participants were invited to take part in the Council of Europe campaign “Sexism: See it, name it, stop it”. Finally, participants planned follow-up actions; they started the process of creating a manual for detecting sexist language – and they planned activities for their local communities, ranging from training teachers on sex education to individual behavioural change and strategies to make everyday language more gender-neutral.